JKA 54

“No, I mean let’s eat before we go home since we’re already out.”

What do you want to eat? Zeo added that, but Jiwoon was strangely silent. It was understandable, since after Zeo stormed into his house, he hadn’t had a single delivery meal properly. Most of the food that could be made at home was cooked by Zeo. Above all, Zeo intensely disliked it when delivery food was left half-eaten and put in the refrigerator.

He said it was annoying to have food he wouldn’t eat again pile up in the fridge. In the first place, Jiwoon was a light eater, so he left behind much more, which was another reason for it. It wasn’t like Zeo could eat with him either, so Jiwoon just followed Zeo’s lead. So, when it came to eating out, the only thing was getting lunch at the student cafeteria.

The number of times he had gone to a restaurant outside of school with friends could be counted on one hand, even when Zeo wasn’t around. If there were any, it was just the few times he was forced to attend the beginning-of-semester general meeting or the end-of-semester party, paid his dues, and ate some meat or chicken. So, this was his first time eating out with Zeo, and honestly, he had never thought he would be able to have a meal with him outside.

It would be ridiculous for the two of them to go in and for only one person to order and eat, and he thought Zeo wouldn’t tolerate ordering a portion for someone who wouldn’t even eat it and just letting it sit there. But since the topic of eating out came from Zeo first, he was bewildered.

Zeo watched Jiwoon, who was silently rolling his eyes rapidly as if thinking about something, and spoke as if he had read his mind completely.

“I can eat. It’s just that I don’t particularly need to, and I don’t feel like it.”

“Th, then you don’t have to f, force yourself to eat.”

“I’m not forcing myself. It’s just that since I can’t taste anything, it feels like a meaningless act.”

Come to think of it, all of Zeo’s actions were like that. But today, something felt a little different. He had bought a ton of clothes he didn’t even need. And he did so while picking out various things and asking Jiwoon. The reason for that was clear. It was because, for some reason, changing his appearance had become a little difficult.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t do it at all, but it felt burdensome to properly visualize and create something. He guessed it was probably for the same reason that the wound he had received from the devil before was healing slowly, and that the wounds on his shoulder left by Jiwoon had not healed.

‘Come to think of it, are the wings growing back?’

He hadn’t even checked if feathers were sprouting from where the wings had been cut off. It seemed there had been some changes not only to his simply created physical body but also to his state of mind. Zeo, even while thinking about himself, thought with a distance as if he were another being. He had never once considered this body as his complete physical form, but now he had reached a point where he couldn’t just keep his distance.

“I think it might have some meaning today.”

“Wh, why?”

“Because it’s a date.”

Zeo pronounced the word ‘date’ clearly. The moment he heard that word, Jiwoon first looked around. The department store was crowded even on a weekday afternoon.

“I, if someone hears…”

“What does it matter. You’ve been thinking about only that all day today anyway, haven’t you?”

“Pa, pardon?”

Jiwoon asked back as if to say, what do you mean, and Zeo scoffed at him. This one still seemed to think he could hide things from him.

“You were throwing a fit, dying to know what to do after realizing you like someone. Didn’t you search it up?”

Zeo spoke teasingly and giggled.

“I, I d, didn’t search it.”

Even though he had tried so hard, it seemed he had habitually sent a complaint again. What a funny complaint, Zeo must have thought. What do I do now, how should I treat him. What on earth is waiting next. While having such excitement-filled thoughts, the fact that he suddenly thought, ah, should I just die, made him think it was just like Jiwoon, but he didn’t feel good about it.

“I did.”

He didn’t ask why he had those thoughts, or why he had so quickly decided to die again after asking if he would stay by his side even if nothing happened. Instead, Zeo chose another route.

“I don’t know how to fasten shirt buttons, and I don’t know how to tie shoelaces. If someone doesn’t teach me or I don’t learn by searching, I don’t know anything about humans.”

“…”

“Cleaning, laundry, washing dishes… I didn’t know how to do a single thing, but I learned. For me, even the most trivial things are things I have to learn.”

Zeo said that and once again took Jiwoon’s hand. In one hand, he was holding a load of shopping bags.

“You’re not the only one who doesn’t know. I don’t know what we should do from now on either.”

“…”

“And in the beginning, everyone is clueless. Whether they’re human, or an angel.”

Zeo only learned things for Jiwoon. He watched many things before granting Jiwoon’s wish. Some things felt familiar, as if he had known them from the very beginning. Among the things he did for Jiwoon, there wasn’t a single thing he had done before in his usual life, but strangely, there were things his hands were accustomed to.

It was a strange thing. To feel déjà vu doing something for the first time. Zeo guessed it was probably something he had learned while fiddling with memories in the decision repository. He might have learned some human behaviors by looking into human memories. Of course, there were things he didn’t know. Those were probably things he hadn’t looked at intently, or things he hadn’t learned even if he had seen them.

He knew some things, and he didn’t know others. In that respect, he was not much different from a human. No one could do everything skillfully from the beginning. Just as he had learned how to walk on two legs from God, there were things scattered throughout the world that one couldn’t know without learning.

*

For a slightly early dinner, Jiwoon didn’t go far and chose one of the restaurants in the department store’s food court. Even if he had gone out, there wasn’t a single restaurant he knew anyway. Fortunately, if you could call it that, there was something he wanted to eat. The restaurant he chose was a place that sold salmon rice bowls. It was because he wanted to eat raw fish, which he hadn’t had in a long time.

Zeo, who naturally ordered the same menu as Jiwoon, continued his meal normally. Everything was so natural that it felt like a lie that he was eating for the first time. It was to the point where Jiwoon, sneaking glances at Zeo, looked more awkward. He was so flustered he couldn’t tell if the food was going into his mouth or his nose, so in the end, Zeo stopped eating and spoke to Jiwoon first.

“Just eat.”

At Zeo’s words, Jiwoon flinched like someone caught doing something they shouldn’t, then quickly lowered his head, pretending nothing was wrong. What did salmon taste like to Zeo? Did it just have texture? Jiwoon was continuously curious even while eating. Then, Jiwoon suddenly spoke to Zeo.

“Th, th, the devil is gone, he said.”

“…”

“It’s been a, a while since he’s seen him, he said. Today, Hanbyeol…”

“Is that an interesting story?”

At Zeo’s question, Jiwoon just blinked his eyes. He was completely absorbed in his meaningless meal, as if he were truly not interested.

“I’m not very curious about his story.”

“No, b, before, you were t, together in front of the pharmacy.”

“Did you see that devil bastard?”

Despite acting uninterested, this time he asked as if he were interrogating him. At his gaze and atmosphere that seemed to demand a quick answer, Jiwoon answered, slightly shrunken.

“I, I didn’t s, see him… I h, heard you w, were together.”

“Anything else.”

“N, nothing. Ah, he d, does talk about the devil, b, but he doesn’t really t, tell me in detail.”

“Then that’s fine.”

“…”

“It’s unlikely you’ll run into him, but you should also try not to be seen by that bastard. Nothing good will come from getting involved.”

Zeo recalled Egui’s face. That devil, he had definitely said he bought Myeong Seonwoo’s shell. He didn’t know how Jiwoon would react if he found out that fact. 17 kept being annoying, and Jiwoon was so nerve-wracking just to look at that he had briefly forgotten that important part. If the barely stabilized Jiwoon were to find out his older brother had fallen to hell, he might really go half-insane then.

‘What the hell is that crazy devil bastard plotting?’

He had told him to just take the mother’s soul. At that time, he was planning to connect Hanbyeol and Jiwoon, so it would have been troublesome if Egui senselessly interfered in the middle. Though he was a devil, it didn’t seem likely that the weak Egui would disobey his words and act on his own. But why? The fact that he had disappeared from Hanbyeol’s sight was strangely bothering him. It could be because the situation had changed, but he had been paying too little attention. It wasn’t like him.

“I’ll look into it. So until then, don’t you dare do anything.”

“Y, you’ll look into it?”

“Yeah. Even though it’s fucking annoying.”

Zeo grumbled, showing his displeasure conspicuously. He complained about everything while wiping his mouth with a napkin, saying why should he get involved when it wasn’t even his business, and that whatever happened to Im Hanbyeol had nothing to do with him. Jiwoon, watching him, felt a smile coming on for some reason and bit his lips, but there was no way Zeo would have missed that.

“Are you laughing?”

“N, no…”

“…”

“B, because you say th, this and that, b, but in the end, you d, do it.”

“You’re fucking sly. You know that?”